1 John 2:27

The "anointing" is the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 John 2:20). The readers had the Holy Spirit within them whose ministry it is to guide believers into all the truth and to teach us what God has revealed (John 14:26; John 16:13). Consequently they were not dependent on other human teachers, especially the false teachers.

From this verse some Christians have concluded that we should not listen to any human teacher. That is not what John said. He wanted his readers to remember that the Holy Spirit was the teacher, the ultimate source of illumination. He did not rule out secondary teachers through whom the Holy Spirit works in teaching. If that had been his view he would not have written this epistle in which he taught his readers. His point was that we should not look to other human beings as the ultimate source of our learning, an attitude the false teachers were encouraging. Of course the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to teach us (John 16:14-15). John was not saying we can discard our Bibles. Since immature believers need human teachers (Hebrews 5:12), though they are not completely dependent on them, John’s readers appear to have been mature in the faith. God has given human teachers as a gift to His church (Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28; cf. Romans 12:7).

"John obviously uses slight irony here. . . . John means that what he is urging on them is fairly self-evident . . ." [Note: Yarbrough, pp. 166-67.]

The readers’ anointing was real. The false teachers appear to have claimed that God had inspired them, but He had not. John was warning his readers about false teachers who claimed revelation beyond what Jesus Christ and the apostles had taught. We need simply to abide in God and to respond positively to the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us (cf. John 15:4-7).

John’s original readers were doing well in their walk with God. John began this section of his epistle (1 John 2:12-27) by affirming their healthful spiritual condition (1 John 2:12-14). He then warned them of their spiritual adversaries (1 John 2:15-27): the allurements of the world (1 John 2:15-17) and the enticements of false teachers (1 John 2:18-27).

There is a parallel between what John urged his readers to do in this section of his epistle and what Moses commanded the Israelites to do. In both cases the holiness of God demanded that those who came into the closest and most intimate contact with God, in the Tabernacle and in the church, be holy. Moses advocated renouncing sin, obeying God, rejecting worldliness, and keeping the faith in the "Covenant Code" (Exodus 20-23; Exodus 25-31), the "Priestly Code" (Exodus 35 -Leviticus 16), and the "Holiness Code" (Leviticus 17:10 to Leviticus 25:55). John similarly urged his readers to renounce sin (1 John 1:8 to 1 John 2:2), to obey God (1 John 2:3-11), to reject worldliness (1 John 2:12-17), and to keep the faith (1 John 2:18-27). In both cases the prophet’s concern was that those believers under their care would be holy as God is holy (Leviticus 11:44-45; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 20:7; 1 Peter 1:15-16). Holiness is imperative for God’s people to "know," "see," and "have fellowship with" a holy God (cf. Hebrews 12:10-14).